‘Expect aid from Centre for basic requirements’
NEW DELHI :Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar spoke to R Sukumar about the impact of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Haryana’s economy, the need to test more people, the migrant movement, restarting business activity, the Tablighi Jamaat cases, and the return to normalcy. Edited excerpts:
Even as Haryana’s economy is considered very robust, how will the lockdown impact the state’s economy and its fundamentals?
We are staring at ~4,000 crore revenue loss in April, which was ~2,300 crore in March. We have committed liabilities such as payment of debt, interest on loan, advances, salary, pension etc.
When there is a shortage in revenue, we can apply the brakes on capital expenditure, but not on committed expenditure. We need about ~4,000 crore per month and we are expecting to anyhow generate just ~1,000 crore revenue.
Hence, the way forward is to take a loan. Central assistance or grants is another way out. We made arrangements in first month, but if this continues, it will be very difficult to manage. On Saturday, during the video conference with the Prime Minister, chief ministers urged PM that there should be a system in place to help all the states to tide over this fiscal crisis. We will certainly find a way out.
What type of help you are expecting from the Centre?
I am expecting help from the Centre in the form of grants so that we can meet our basic requirements. The percentage of the debt should be increased from the existing 3%. The rules concerning raising loans should be relaxed. If it is done, we can go for the loan instead of depending on the Centre for monetary help. We have to make arrangements for ~4,000 crore per month till the lockdown. If we get ~1,000 crore revenue receipts, we need ~3,000 crore. This can be in the shape of debt, in the shape of a grant, or in the shape of a special package. It depends.
When will economic activity start?
As the Prime Minister has indicated, we will have to move towards economic activity also, while taking utmost care of lockdown and social distancing. We must have a plan in place. While four districts in the
National Capital Region (NCR) -- Palwal, Nuh, Gurugram, Faridabad -- will be categorised as the Covid “hot spots” or “red zones’’, meaning highly vulnerable, all the remaining 18 other districts will be partially or completely put in the two different categories of orange or green zones. A lockdown will be enforced in Red Zone. In the green zone, small and medium industry will be allowed to start operations, provided the entrepreneur give us an undertaking to fulfil the guidelines in letter and spirit. We want small industry to start its operations at lower capacity first.
Out of 22 districts, cases are coming from four. What’s your lockdown release plan?
We have declared the four districts hot spots. Naturally, other districts where there are no cases will fall in the green zone. We will take commitment from all industrialists to maintain social distancing while starting the factories. We will form social distancing plan committees up to block level.
So far, there have been 4,000 tests. How and when will the state increase its testing?
Two days ago, we have increased the number of testing labs. Earlier, we had just two labs, now permission has been given to five private labs. Now we have eight labs functioning and two or three more labs will start testing in a week or so. Thus, our target is to go for more than a 1,000 tests a day in dozenodd labs in the days to come. Rapid antibody testing is on the cards. We have placed orders for 100,000 testing kits.
Are you buying them from China?
No, no... we have placed order within the state. The states have exemption to buy such equipments on their own. We have kept ~500 crore as reserve for purchasing equipment
By what time will the rapid testing kits be delivered?
I am expecting delivery within a week.
This is the harvesting season, and so what are your plans?
Last year, there were over 400 procurement centres. Now we have identified about 1,850 purchase centre across the state. School building, warehousing godowns, premises of rice shellers etc will be converted to purchase centres. Commission agents are on board. Mustard procurement will start on April 15, and wheat from April 20. We will stagger the procurement. Until last year, most of the procurement operations used to be over in 25 days; now we will stagger the procurement operations to two months.
After starting on April 20, it will continue till June 20. We will regulate the arrival of farmers to mandis. In order to regulate and stagger the procurement, the Market Committee will issue online e-gate passes to allow the entry of the agricultural produce. The passes will be issued only to registered and verified farmers on “Meri Fasal Mera Byora” portal.
The farmers will be allowed to visit Mandi in two time slots from 8am to 2pm and from 2:30pm to 6pm. The Rabi procurement season (wheat, mustard and gram) will start from April 15 and continue till June 30. Wheat procurement will start from April 20.
What impact will this crisis have on the economy?
Huge impact. First, the temporary jobs — like those of daily wagers — will be affected. Tourism will suffer a lot. There will be a dip in demand of luxurious goods, there will be a setback to tourism -- all these things will definitely happen. While one sector will revive, another sector will continue to take a hit and struggle. When this type of crisis takes place, we will have to make people aware about their responsibilities. We will have to strengthen our health services. There is uncertainty in every sphere of life.
Apart from health, which are other areas you plan to focus on?
First, we have to strengthen the administrative system. How to run the administration even during social distancing is the challenge. To face this challenge, we are strengthening our online systems like running the administrative via videoconference etc.
The exchange of information needs to be accelerated and increased. We are working on creating 25,000 administrative units up to the block level having a minimum 200 houses and 1,000 population. District administration will play a major role in this. The objective is to ensure live contact with these 25,000 administrative units from the state to small units in village.The big target is to ensure food for all, jobs for daily wagers and ensure administration and health remain effective.
How did Haryana handle the migrant labourers crisis?
Initially, there was a crisis for two days on March 29 and 30. We set up camps immediately along the roads and slowly they started returning. People even returned from Delhi back to Haryana. Later, we sealed our borders. At present, we have about 200 camps in which 15,500 migrant labourers are staying as of today.
Have you traced all the people of Tablighi Jamaat?
There are some who are yet to come forward. Till two days ago, we had given opportunity to all of them to report. After that, we have registered cases against some of them who were caught; we had to act tough. We may again give them another chance to surrender. We don’t know if those who are yet to be traced are within the state or have managed to go out of the state.